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Ideally, but what if those representatives and all of their credible opponents are doing a bad job and have been for years?


Then that's the way the cookie crumbles.

What do you want me to say? Throw away the constitution because congressmen are idiots, lets do direct democracy and all pretend we're experts on everything? Nobody can be informed on everything; anybody who thinks they are is obviously an obvious idiot who doesn't know his own limitations. No, direct democracy sucks for anything much larger than a canton, and certainly for any group with interests as serious and diverse as America's. What we have now is far from perfect, but it works reasonably well and I wouldn't throw it away in exchange for a nuclear-armed ochlocracy.

The mere thought of that sends shivers up my spine.


A friend of mine is fond of a saying - ‘Democracy is the theory that the people deserve to get the government they vote for, good and hard’.




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